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Formatting Names (Whats in a name?)

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    #1

    Formatting Names (Whats in a name?)

    After 2 hrs of reading VERY valuable posts and linking to more than a few that I know I'll be back to, alas I did not see an answer to this ?

    I'll truncate it down to just the ? if I can
    salut is a 5 space char field
    salutcalc is a 6 space char field
    salutcalc field rule calculated : if(isblank("salut"),"",alltrim(salut)+" ")
    now my understanding is that "" puts a null value into a char field

    namecombo is a char field with this calc (truncated): salutcalc+.......

    expected result '( I'll use the tilde to represent the "start" of the namecombo field.

    |Mr. T (with Mr. in the salut field) .or.
    |T (in no salutation is in salut)

    what I get

    |Mr. T (looks like a few extra spaces are included) .or.
    | T (looks like {6?} extra spaces included

    What I am trying to get is if there is a salutation, that salutation followed by a single space then the next field in the equation, and if there is no salutation for the next field in the equation to be at the "start" of namecombo.

    Ok Did I ask this intelligently?

    Jeff


    attaching file if interested
    Tags: None
    #2
    Hello Jeffery,

    Well if I understand what you are wanting, how about this:

    Code:
    alltrim(SALUTCALC)+" "+allTRIM(FNAME)+" "+allTRIM(MICALC)+" "+allTRIM(LNAME)+" "+SUFFIX
    Good luck,
    Jim
    Last edited by Jim Chapman; 11-02-2005, 11:38 PM.

    Comment

      #3
      Jeff,

      Looking at your example, you don't need all those calc fields.

      Just put this in namecombo:

      Code:
      IF(SALUT<>"",ALLTRIM(SALUT)+CHR(32),"")+IF(FNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(FNAME)+CHR(32),"")+IF(MI<>"",ALLTRIM(MI)+CHR(32),"")+IF(LNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(LNAME),"")+IF(SUFFIX<>"",CHR(32)+SUFFIX,"")
      Once you do this, make sure you recalculate the calculated fields by right clicking the table, select utilities->Recalc calculated fields(field rules)

      Scott

      Comment

        #4
        deleted when saw the next post
        Last edited by A4BEST; 11-03-2005, 12:38 AM.

        Comment

          #5
          EURIKA! Scott that got it(almost). I thought nested if's might get there but I could not find a notisblank and .not.isblank did not work. Your <>"" is elegant and I will deffinetly be remembering it!!!!!

          The (almost)
          I have probably spent 10 hours on trying to get the L. mask to work and never have been satisfied. I made the mi field 1 char, that forced user to be able to only enter the letter. Micalc takes that letter if its there and adds the period. I plugged micalc into your equation and it works perfectly the way I wanted it to.

          chr(32) is a space I presume and I will be remembering that one also

          Thank YOU so much

          Jeff

          Comment

            #6
            salutcalc is designed to format salut for addition to the char string.
            I'm not sure I'm understanding correctly but I think you are trying to say you want to save the salutation in the field with the extra space on the end. This can't be done. Here's why....

            If a character field in a table is 6 characters long, it is ALWAYS 6 characters long and will be padded on the right with blank spaces if necessary. Therefore, if you try to save "Mr." + " " (4 characters) in a 6 character field, the field will actually store "Mr." plus 3 blank spaces.

            This is why you often need to trim values read from a character field before comparing them or concatenating them. However, when comparing them, sometimes the trimming is necessary and sometimes it's not. If you want to do:
            IF TablePointer.Last_namef = "Smith"
            without trimming the field value, I believe it works just fine. However, the comparison functions at(), atc(), and &, require you to trim the field value first. From the Interactive Editor:
            test = "fred "
            ?at(test,"fred,sam,yuri,jo")
            = 0.000000
            ?at(trim(test),"fred,sam,yuri,jo")
            = 1.000000
            ?test$"fred,sam,yuri,jo"
            = .F.
            ?trim(test)$"fred,sam,yuri,jo"
            = .T.

            FYI: +chr(32) is identical to +" "

            Comment

              #7
              Jeff,

              You still don't need the MICalc, use this:

              Code:
              IF(SALUT<>"",ALLTRIM(SALUT)+CHR(32),"")+IF(FNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(FNAME)+CHR(32),"")+IF(MI<>"",ALLTRIM(MI)+". ","")+IF(LNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(LNAME),"")+IF(SUFFIX<>"",CHR(32)+SUFFIX,"")
              As you can see I just added the period to the calc statement above, and since I did that I removed the chr(32) and just added it to the string. Oh and by the way, the above is not a "nested if", it is just if statements added togeather. A nested if would be a if statement inside a if statement, something like:

              Code:
              If(sky=clouds,IF(clouds>sun,"partly Cloudy","Partly Sunny"),"the Sky is Clear")
              Scott

              Comment

                #8
                Cal, Thank you for the explanation. It deffinetly expanded my understanding of chr fields.

                If I got it right

                A 6 space chr field will be filled/padded to 6 places with spaces to fill field

                IF

                there is ANY data entred in the field.

                Putting "" in a chr field in a formula results in the same way as if you clicked past it during data entry, ie: a "null" value/empty field, ie: field "isblank"

                I am going to play with your tests. A little over my head right now but hey thats how I am going to learn.


                Scott, FANTASTIC!!!

                I was also able to get rid of the alltrim(mi) and just go with mi, since mi is a single chr width field.

                final line:
                IF(SALUT<>"",ALLTRIM(SALUT)+CHR(32),"")+IF(FNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(FNAME)+CHR(32),"")+IF(MI<>"",MI+". ","")+IF(LNAME<>"",ALLTRIM(LNAME),"")+IF(SUFFIX<>"",CHR(32)+SUFFIX,"")

                Added if's, WOW do you have me thinking!!!

                your <>"" (.not.isblank)is much more intuitive to me, being stated after the field to question unlike functions that syntax puts in front of the field

                I don't understand why chr(32) works so much better than " " but hey it does and I'm not going to argue with that!!


                I want to Thank All of you for the help.
                Jeff

                Comment

                  #9
                  Actually, Jeff, I'm pretty sure that putting a "null" into a 6 character field will still leave it with 6 blank spaces - not a null value.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    There is an = operator (equal to) and an == operator (exactly matching). The = operator ignores blanks at the end of a string. The == operator does not ignore them.

                    If salut is blank (or null), sault="" is true.
                    salut=="" is false.

                    Bill.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      == also matches case. The two strings have to be truly identical. It's essentially the equivalent of strcmp() in C.

                      There is also <> and !=. != is 'not exactly equal' vs <> which is a case insensitive, padding insensitive non-equality operator.

                      Originally posted by Bill Parker
                      There is an = operator (equal to) and an == operator (exactly matching). The = operator ignores blanks at the end of a string. The == operator does not ignore them.

                      If salut is blank (or null), sault="" is true.
                      salut=="" is false.

                      Bill.
                      Aaron Brown
                      Alpha Software Development Team

                      Comment

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